Last week I had an opportunity to visit with Schneider Electric and their DCIM team in Carrollton, TX. The goal of the meeting was simple, take a deep dive of StruxureWare for Data Centers. This exercise allowed me to get a better understanding of what DCIM is all about and learn how it integrates with the selected components used in Compass’ Truly Modular Solution. Going through the demo all I was thinking about was: “wow, StruxureWare DCIM is a beast”. I was truly impressed; the application is simple to use and extremely powerful. I probably need many more visits to get a good handle on it. My favorite feature was StuxureWare’s ability to integrate with VMware vSphere. With this feature, users can migrate virtual machines from the physical host that is failing to a healthy server automatically!
So, who would need this type of software? Is it the data center manager or the facility manager? Is it both? Can the sales team benefit from it? Well, all of the above in my book.
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- The data center manager can make intelligent decisions at a component level and ensure that the SLA’s are met.
- The facility manager can increase efficiency of the infrastructure based on gained raised floor insight.
- The sales team can have a detailed understanding of what is available to sell.
- Etc.
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[space height=”10″]These are just a few examples that come to mind. I am sure there is a ton more that we can add to the list. For me, the most important piece is the useful data DCIM tools provide hence enabling the user to make informed decisions. Decision touching every facet of the data center: capacity planning, load balancing, energy efficiency, operations, and so on. I am sure you have heard this before: “you can’t manage what your can’t measure”; and in this case, it is a fact.
[frame src=”http://www.datacentertactics.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2012/06/DCIM_Snapshot.jpg” width=”588″ height=”439″ lightbox=”on” ] StruxureWare Snapshot
So, is DCIM for you? If so, are you using it to its full capacity? If not, is there a functional reason (excluding cost) why you are not using DCIM? Has DCIM solved problems in your data center? I would love to hear your story.
*Image Credits: Schneider Electric
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Who indeed? If I take a step back and think of what is the core purpose of DCIM I see improved reliability and improved efficiency, of the IT Services. All the add-ons to the suite of tools either supports one or both of the core purposes. However, the deployments I have seen thus far always seem to under utilize the tool. I believe this is because whichever group is responsible for deploying the tools does not have the expertise (or the organizational responsibility) to operate into the others operational role.
When you think about a data center you see two sets of operational professionals, the facility engineering staff and the IT Data Center Technicians. At the data center their duties are very similar. Maintain plant machinery, maintain IT machinery. However the engineers don’t touch the cabinets and the IT Techs don’t touch the CRACs.
Does a new group need to emerge to take advantage of the entire suite of tools? I think so. If we want to maximize our gains in the core purposes, yes. It is all about supporting the IT Services, and at present two groups are engaged in this effort without very much cross training and their efforts, while outstanding in their own discipline, do not take into account the entire operational stack, from the facility to the OS.
I suggest the name Critical Facilities Data Engineer, but am open to suggestions.
Jason, thanks for your comment! You make a great point. In my experience, most of the customers do not use DCIM to it’s full capabilities; most of the time it’s because of they do not fully understand the entire data center operations spectrum. I agree with your new focus group suggestion. Actually, I love it. I view it as a total new skill set and would call it Data Center Intelligence. It will be interesting to see how it would evolve. I am looking forward to it.